Yet the 47-year-old actress, in a recent interview with the online magazine
Net-a-Porter, said she has hung up her Jimmy Choos after a visit to a podiatrist.

Years of wearing sky-high stilettos have mangled her feet, said Parker, who starred in the TV
series
Sex and the City.

Celebrities aren’t the only ones struggling to find a balance between fashion and comfort: A
survey conducted by the American Podiatric Medical Association showed that 73 percent of U.S. women
have shoe-related foot problems.

“High heels increase the pressure on the bottom of the foot, change the center of gravity,
affect most of your joints — hips, back, knees,” said Carly Robbins, a podiatrist in Marysville. “
They cause a risk of having ankle instability and sprains, especially in Ohio ice and snow.”

Older women once wedded to high-heeled shoes often suffer pain in their 40s and 50s, experts
say.

“A lot of women will lose the fat pad on the bottom of the feet,” Robbins said. “Less fat can be
more painful. Over time, women might develop arthritis (or) hammertoes — which can also make . . .
(high heels) more painful.”

In the Columbus area, Elizabeth Bean Smith of the fashion-consulting company Wardrobe Therapy
said many of her clients say they can’t wear heels.

“It forces us to look into (shoe) lines that are comfortable but fashionable — not old lady
shoes,” she said.

Smith often urges clients to wear platforms or wedges so they get the height without the spike
of a stiletto.

Robbins suggests the same to her patients because such heels lessen the stress on the ball of
the feet.

She also recommends limited use of heels.

“A lot of working women will wear more sensible shoes for their commute,” she noted, “then
change into heels when they reach their destination.”

Since giving birth, singer Beyonce and celebrity stylist Rachel Zoe have reportedly surrendered
heels for loafers at least some of the time — although neither abandoned heels during their
pregnancies.

During the last two months of her pregnancy, however, WBNS-TV (Channel 10) morning anchorwoman
Angela An, albeit begrudgingly, gave up her 4-inch heels.

“I wasn’t about to jeopardize the health or safety of my newborn,” she said.

Two months later, she again fits in her heels, she said, but doesn’t always turn to them.